Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Elizabeast

According to the American Kennel Club, Cocker Spaniels are intelligent, gentle dogs that thrive as part of a family. This especially true for Elizabeth if thrive means emotionally needy and needs to be petted constantly. We have had a her a little less than a year. We got her when my best friend moved to England and couldn't afford to bring her with her. I love this dog. She is great. She has never had a potty accident in my house, she gets along with my cat*, my kids love her, and she has a very cheery disposition. I really couldn't have asked for a better dog for my family. There is just one small, teeny tiny, itty bitty, little tiny problem. She needs constant attention from me, not anyone else, just me. She will try(very slickly) to push KiKi out of my lap to get petted. If she is running around outside when we are sitting out there, she will out of nowhere jump in my lap to be loved on. My neighbors think it is the funniest thing. I can usually deal with it as long as I am not doing anything important or holding anything that could spill.

There are times tho that her cuddle drive is completely out of control. When I am cuddling up to the hubby in bed and she tries to wedge herself between us. Not a good thing. When my kids need to be cuddled and she tries to slowly sneak onto my lap. I'm not having it. My husband seriously has gotten jealous of the dog before because of the amount of attention she gets. Then I have to remind him that the kind of attention she wants doesn't involve sex. And then I usually get some random Beavis quote**. KiKi has also learned the following words just because of my dog: quit, stop, no liz. These are usually used when I am sitting on the floor with KiKi in my lap and Lizabeast comes to collect some lovin.

We are moving to England in two months and we had to seriously think about the expense that it was going to cost our family to bring our pets. It is not cheap, roughly $1500 per pet (this is the vet visits, pet carrier, airfare, and possible quarantine). To me my pets are family. I have had Elizabeth a little less than a year and she has already carved a place in my heart that could never be repaired if I had to leave her. Sam Kitty, as much of a pain in the rear as he is has to come too. I have had him since he was 7 weeks old and there is just no way I could leave him now. So my family is going to shell out the thousands of dollars that it costs to transport these furry members of our family to the UK. Just one more hazzard of having a military family.

* She pretty much ignores him unless he is sleeping, then she goes and licks his ears til he gets pissed off.** You can thank me for that later :)

6 comments:

I love her! I haven't even read your post yet. I just wanted you to know how adorable she is. I'll go read it now. Lord, I hope she didn't do anything horrible like chew someone's arm off. How awkward would THIS comment be then?!

Good. No chewing, just extreme cuddling. Aw. She has a canine crush on you. I have a cat that is the same way and attaches himself to me and hisses at anyone else around. Good luck with the move. I'd totally fork over the money to do it too.

Shoo! That is a lot of money. It's not so bad for a couple, I guess, but for my family... well that would currently involve two kittens, one cat, one puppy, one small dog, and one very large dog. WAY too expensive.